Saving salt’s place in Sanford, state history

By Tony Lascari tlascari@mdn.net

Published
6:39 am EDT, Friday, June 14, 2013

NICK KING | nking@mdn.netChris French, left, points out the area of Michigan's first salt well to Tom Trombley, deputy director of the Historical Society of Saginaw County Castle Museum, in Sanford. On this day, the well was not visible due to elevated water levels of the Tittibawassee River. less

NICK KING | nking@mdn.netChris French, left, points out the area of Michigan's first salt well to Tom Trombley, deputy director of the Historical Society of Saginaw County Castle Museum, in Sanford. On this ... more

Photo: Nick King/Midland Daily News

Photo: Nick King/Midland Daily News

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NICK KING | nking@mdn.netChris French, left, points out the area of Michigan's first salt well to Tom Trombley, deputy director of the Historical Society of Saginaw County Castle Museum, in Sanford. On this day, the well was not visible due to elevated water levels of the Tittibawassee River. less

NICK KING | nking@mdn.netChris French, left, points out the area of Michigan's first salt well to Tom Trombley, deputy director of the Historical Society of Saginaw County Castle Museum, in Sanford. On this ... more

Photo: Nick King/Midland Daily News

Saving salt’s place in Sanford, state history

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A short drive from the Sanford Centennial Museum, Chris French leads a group down a steep, forested riverbank.

The narrow trail behind a private residence on Seven Mile Road is covered in leaves and it has been raining for days. The group treks slowly down as far as it can to the Tittabawassee River’s edge. There, under flood waters, is the site Chris French wants everyone to see: State Salt Well No. 1.

There’s not much to see, even when not covered by the river, French admits. It looks like a 6-foot deep, V-shaped depression in the ground. But, it’s the history of the site, known by Native Americans in the area and explored by Michigan’s first state geologist, Douglass Houghton, in 1837, that gets her excited.

French had seen the Michigan Historical Site plaque along the Pere Marquette Rail-Trail commemorating the well as a registered site, but never knew where the well was located until she started researching salt wells for the Castle Museum of Saginaw County history. By looking through Houghton’s records, maps from the era and talking with longtime Sanford residents, she found the location and got the property owner’s permission to take a look.

With her on a return visit was a local geologist, member of the Sanford Historical Society, Castle Museum employee and others. After visiting State Salt Well No. 1, the group went to a second site, believed to be a non-flowing salt seep that Houghton also would have explored.

Early settlers used salt to preserve fish and other foods, for tanning hides and for cooking, so finding a source within the state was a priority for Michigan’s founders.

In a report from Houghton to the state’s first governor, Stevens T. Mason, concerning the salt wells in the Sanford area, Houghton wrote (as recorded in “Upper Tittabawassee River Boom Towns” by Stan Berriman) — “On the Tittabawassa river in Midland county, numerous indications of the existence of brine springs were noticed extending from near the mouth of the Chippewa river as far as I ascended the former stream, being a few miles above the mouth of the Salt river. Upon either side of the Tittabawassa, between the points noted, small pools of brackish water were observed, as also, occasionally springs discharging a similar water in small quantities; and although an examination showed the waters to contain large quantities of the slats [salts] of lime, and occasionally of iron, they were never destitute of more or less salt.”

Houghton observed a spring on the bank of the river that was covered by water, but he was able to build near the bank to keep the river water out and examine the spring’s contents. This was spring No. 1 in his report.

“The spring was found by actual measurement to discharge about seventy gallons of water per hour, free from all sedimentary matter, perfectly transparent, and to have a temperature of 47 degrees, while the temperature of the river was 51 degrees Fah,” Houghton wrote.

The state began to dig a well one-half mile below the mouth of the Salt River in June 1838. Houghton hoped to reach salt rock an estimated 500 to 700 feet below ground level to increase the salt content of the spring water.

“Hindered by primitive living conditions, worker illness, and equipment failure, the four-year effort ended when the drill could not penetrate a boulder at 129 feet,” the historical site plaque on the Rail-Trail states. “This was the first attempt in an industry that placed Michigan as a leading salt producer in the United States.”

Salt evaporation equipment was able to use steam from saw mills in its process, linking the industries together. With lumbering along the river booming in the decades after Houghton’s visit, the Saginaw area became a major salt producer in the state.

Tom Trombley, deputy director of the Castle Museum, said Michigan and New York were the top salt producing states in the late 19th Century.

“What made it profitable in Saginaw was the relationship to the lumbering boom because you had access to steam and sawdust from the mill to evaporate the salt brine,” he said.

Period advertising for saw mills in the region regularly advertised that they also sold salt, Trombley said.

“Lumbering ended very suddenly in Saginaw,” he said. “It should have been predictable, but nobody really wanted to see the writing on the door that this incredible boom that brought such prosperity was going to end so quickly. They deluded themselves into thinking that salt was going to carry them through; then they latched onto coal mining. The problem with salt was it was only profitable in the Saginaw Valley because of the cheap fuel. Once that source of cheap fuel was gone, it just wasn’t as profitable.”

Chuck Dinsmore, president of the Sanford Historical Society, said he knew of the location of the salt seep near the Sanford Trailhead on the Rail-Trail, but not that the spring across the river was the actual site of State Salt Well No. 1.

“It’s interesting that someone showed enough interest to actually hunt it down,” he said of French.

French said the site of State Salt Well No. 1 deserves more recognition for its place in history.

“It fueled the beginning of the salt industry,” she said.

On the rainy day of her visit to the well, only a small section of a fence that was placed around the site remained intact. Other sections have been claimed by floods along the river. French hopes the site can be better marked and preserved.

“People aren’t going to know what it is, and it’ll be lost in time,” she said.